How It's Used

"About 10 years ago, gaily colored banners were hung along the street in my neighborhood, Alphabet City, in the southeastern corner of Manhattan. Their slogan, 'Avenue C is the place to be in the '90s,' seemed more than a bit optimistic, since the area then was thick with ruined buildings and ridden with poverty and crime. But judging by the teeming nightlife and lively business growth now, it looks as if the banners were just too early."

—Karin Pekarchik, "Alphabet City: The ABCs of Gentrification," BusinessWeek, June 11, 2001.

"When they returned to Milan, Bruno wrote an article for an Italian travel magazine titled 'A Slowed-Down Life in New York.' Taking as his epigraph Holden Caulfield’s existential musing on the wintertime fate of Central Park’s ducks, Bruno wrote, 'Take the time to walk around the central lake, do not run, simply walk. However, do it counter-clockwise. You will realize that Central Park is a sort of old alarm clock, with an external ring, daily wound up by people running around the lake.' The article is full of tips on where to stay ('south Harlem, Alphabet City, the East Village, or a little place on Columbus or Amsterdam') and what to do ('Why not seize the opportunity to have your hair cut for only 10 dollars?')."

—Katherine Sterling, "Va Bene," The New Yorker, April 7, 2008.

Links

Related on eAlmanac
The Great White Way
Fifth Avenue
Seventh Avenue

Beyond eAlmanac
Wikipedia article on Alphabet City